Some of my thoughts concerning DC and Frua

[manikus]

Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace is not a Goldbox game. It was made by SSI and it did use AD&D, but the game play and graphics are very, very different.

Um, and sorry fans, but I think it does suck. It makes the Hillsfar game look brilliant...

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by Stephen1980 Ben Sanderfer said that he can fully understand Harri Polsa for going to Neverwinter Nights because of the bigger audience he has there. And I understand that perfectly.

Is Mr. Polsa currently active in the NWN community? I wish the original Neverwinter Nights MP game that was on AOL was still around. I never got to participate in that but I've heard about it and seen screenshots. I've often wondered - if the original NWN was basically a Gold Box engine that could be played online what is stopping us from playing single-player FRUA games online? Also couldn't FRUA [or even better -DC!] be used to form a new classic NWN style MMORPG?

[Arminius]

So Pirates of Realmspace didn't have the GBG style virtual 3d map navigation and top down icon based combat? Sorry about my mistake, I just assumed it was a goldbox game based on a couple screenshots I thought looked like a goldbox game. And that review was all I knew of it.

[manikus]

Originally Posted by Arminius Is Mr. Polsa currently active in the NWN community? I wish the original Neverwinter Nights MP game that was on AOL was still around. I never got to participate in that but I've heard about it and seen screenshots. I've often wondered - if the original NWN was basically a Gold Box engine that could be played online what is stopping us from playing single-player FRUA games online? Also couldn't FRUA [or even better -DC!] be used to form a new classic NWN style MMORPG?

Mr. Polsa: I haven't seen anything from him in the NWN forums/sites for a while, but he most likely moved on to NWN2 when that came out or onto something else.

AOL NWN: It is a Goldbox style game. I say is, b/c if you visit the FRUA repository, there is a version that you can download and play (but you can't save anything).
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/nwn-off.txt
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/nwn-off.zip

Can we play FRUA or DC as they are now online? No. We need to create a server and client system. How easy or hard this is, I do not know. To create a multiplayer sytem like AOL NWN had would be a lot more difficult because even though the game was turn-based there were time limits for how long you had to do your turn in combat. From what I can tell, this is a lot harder to implement. Plus, there is the issue of having a server to host and run the MMORPG...

There is a project called Forgotten Worlds taht is using the old AOL NWN engine or an exact clone of it (I suspect the former, but they won't say). They've changed the setting to one of their own, but it's the same magic spells we're all used to and the exact same look and system as the original AOL NWN game. It's fun to play for a while, though it's not very balanced for a single player, and I've yet to be on when another player is. They have a test server with a new version of the engine (which makes me suspect the latter of the above two choices) with updated graphics and supposedly an editor similar to FRUA or DC. I know that they are aware of DC and FRUA, but I don't think any of the programmers are part of either of those communities. I do know that one artist for Forgotten Worlds has done a couple of pieces of art for DC (can you guess who that is?). But, they don't seem to be actively working on the project at the moment. It's too bad. The main version is completely workable and I would say completely out of beta, though game balance could use some tweaking. The test server build of the new engine is farther along than DC, b/c they've used the spell and combat engine from the working AOL NWN/ForgottenWorld engine.
http://www.forgottenworld.com/

Maybe we should see if Brian O'Donnell - the main hack genius for FRUA - thinks it's possible to have FRUA use an upgraded graphics system, or if it's possible to just the combat and spell engines in something like, oh I don't know, DC?

[SilentThief]

Originally Posted by manikus Some more examples of appropriate, non-random combat: You create a forest where various wild animals may engage the PCs on their adventures. - It is completely plausible that a designer would fill a forest full of animals to make it seem more real. That's not random

Yeah, the UANL had more than one article talking about this. The main thing was to have something different from "every 8 steps fight the same 6 orcs", or after too many drinks fighting the 1st level fighter guys with poolsticks (the icon for the weakest fighter enemies).

ST
ps, now that I gave an example of what not to do, I should prolly give an example of what to do...

[Uatu]

Random encounters should have 10-20 types of creatures per map, I think - otherwise, it doesn't feel very random!

(The 1st level fighter guys with poolsticks sounds nice )

[manikus]

Originally Posted by Uatu Random encounters should have 10-20 types of creatures per map, I think - otherwise, it doesn't feel very random! (The 1st level fighter guys with poolsticks sounds nice )

My point for this was that if the designer was picking 10 to 20 different possibilities that fit in with her story, that it's not random from her perspective and only seems so to the player b/c they have limited sight of the scope of the design. Or like, you know, whatever.

Hi Uatu! Glad to see you're surviving the lack of sleep.